EP printers intended for the office environment employ either OPC belts or drums that employ an OPC coating. In either case, the OPC has a finite lifetime as the result of a variety of wear factors. For example, the chargeable layer of an OPC deteriorates over a period of time as a result of continued exposures to an imaging laser beam. More specifically, the electrical characteristics of the OPC layer change over time and thereby reduce the quality of the resulting image. Such OPC layers also generally include a release layer which tends to wear. This causes transfer of toner from the OPC to a paper sheet to be less efficient, leaving a residue on the OPC--which affects subsequent copies.
As the cost of EP printers has decreased, maintenance chores that were once carried out by a service representative are now relegated to the customer. For instance, many EP printers which employ an OPC coated drum, package the drum along with a toner supply and other drive mechanisms in a user-replaceable cartridge. While such packaging enables higher reliability operation of the EP printer, replacement cartridges are expensive and cause replacement of the drum prior to the end of its useful life.
Printers which employ OPC belts enable the user to access the belt for replacement purposes. In certain such printers, the spent belt is contained in a cartridge and the complete cartridge is replaceable. In other printers, the spent belt is required to be handled in the replacement process which causes the user to get toner on himself/herself during the replacement process. Furthermore, handling of the replacement belt by the user sometimes occurs and impairs its function.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved package for a replacement OPC belt that enables a simple and environmentally sound method for replacing the OPC belt in a printer.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved package for a replacement OPC belt which enables a user to remove a spent OPC belt without handling it.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an improved package for a replacement OPC belt which is inexpensive and enables a belt to be replaced without requiring replacement of other mechanisms in the printer.